PlutoPay

Providing Australian university students with a research backed and habit-focused solution to budgeting

Project timeline

Dec 2021 - Aug 2022

Project role

Product (UX/UI) designer

The problem

Australian university students are struggling significantly more with finances that full time employees (Finder Australia, 2022)
Based on a study by Finder Australia (2022), around 33% of full time university students in Australia face extreme stress around their financial state with rent and mortgage rated as the most stressful expense. As a university student myself, I've noticed how my peers struggle with savings as well as the rapidly rising cost of student debt which sparked the following question: "how might we provide Australian university students a solution to build better financial habits as well as manage their savings more effectively?"

Whitepaper/Tabletop research

The competitive analysis + The Gap

Existing competition had little to no focus on the accountability aspect

In 2021, I analyzed four of the most popular apps surrounding the fintech space amongst Generation Z individuals in Australia which included players such as: Afterpay. I found that they did not provide any form of accountability and instead encouraged detrimental spending habits.


For instance, Afterpay’s innovative business model encouraged a controversial spending mindset and cultivated habits that resulted in spiraling saving goals of many students in Australia. Their "Buy Now, Pay Later" loans promotes impulse spending and could affect a user's credit score if their payments were late

The paper that caught my eye was by: The Technical University of Darmstadt which confirmed in a study that:

"...failing performance goals can damage an individual's sense of self and consequently affect their long-term outcomes"

An initial survey to scope out the problem was sent to 20 students aged 18-25 years old

Statistics

1. 63% of participants tracked expenses in their respective bank account app
2. 33% of participants use finance apps to shop online
3. Most common motivations to use financial apps are as follows: convenience, ability to shop anytime and ability to compare prices

Major themes identified

Theme 1: Motivation

University students are more extrinsically motivated to complete an activity

Theme 2: Personalisation

Tailored experiences can make or break a student’s commitment

The ability to customise digital experiences not only increased joy in the experience, it also provided students greater efficiency in task completion

Students interviewed found that they would eventually stop using an application if it could not accommodate to their specific needs

Theme 3: Convenience

Students face great pressures outside of studies and are often on-the-go

External pressure and rewards led to a higher level of motivation to complete a task

Budgeting and savings tends to be a complicated and complex process when students have to juggle multiple obligations outside of financial planning

i.e., when given a deadline and reward for behaviour, the sense of urgency coupled with incentives led students to dedicate a greater level of focus and attention to tasks

Students surveyed found that they needed apps that provided them the convenience of on-the-go

BUT… how does accountability and setting S.M.A.R.T goals affect users reaching their financial goals?

Plotting out a user journey map

From 6 university students that were interviewed…

The Key Insight 1

Users were more likely to stick with their financial plan when there was accountability for their goals and it doesn't feel "like a chore"

Participants found that budgeting is complex and they track their expenses through a mix of bank account applications and additional financial budgeting apps

From the interviews, I was able to plot out the average university student’s process of goal-setting and tracking to develop a user journey map

The Key Insight 2

Most people are susceptible to quitting when they have increased the difficulty of the goal and did not set goals in a way that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely

  1. I mapped out two journeys with the user's potential feelings at various stages of the user journey and when they would likely quit:
    Ideal path : User sets goals that follow the S.M.A.R.T framework and continues with daily habits that facilitate the success of the goal and has success with maintaining efforts to achieve goal

  2. Negative path : User increased difficulty of the goal from the start, did not set goal based on a S.M.A.R.T framework and ended up quitting‍

The BIG takeaway

Accountability is key to building effective saving habits and achieving financial goals.
The core pain point for students involves their savings diminishing due to a lack of motivation and damaging sense of self after failing to achieve their goals. Accountability tools and features such as partners (friends, family, etc) and goal setting features encourage users to stay active on their goals and build better habits

So how is accountability being incorporated into PlutoPay?

01: Setting accountability partners

> Add friends, parents and more as companions in your financial journey
> According to the American Society of Training and Development : "...people are 65% likely to meet a goal after making their goal public. But their chances of success increases to 95% when they have a specific accountability partner"

02: Provide users a way to set S.M.A.R.T focused goals

> Add goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely
> A study by Ogbeiwi (2017) found that "goals need to be properly constructed to serve as credible and usable benchmarks" in order to plan for effective changes

10+ iterations later…

User testing drove the following 3 main improvements:

Conclusion and reflection

What I would do differently

This was my first ever UX project!! I am extremely grateful to have been through an entire UX design process and appreciate the people who helped guide me through this journey. On that note, a few things that I have learnt and would strive to do differently in the future are:
‍
1. Iterate as much as possible.

In the beginning, I explored many options and alternative options by researching competitors. This led to over-crowding of features and cramming of as many ideas as possible into my first wireframes. I ended up restarting and re-iterating my project three times as I learnt more and more about refining my designs. Not to mention – I have a better understanding of the Material Design guidelines and hope to apply these principles earlier

2. Focus on making user touchpoints contextual, relevant and useful.

I believe that contextualizing the patterns rather than focusing on consistency is more important. That is, how does the feature relate to the next. I would use instances of the app in Figma to analyze the user experience, patterns and usability points. As a result of focusing on separate features in the beginning stages, I lacked the ability to adapt to changes in the future and disrupted the user flow

3. Become more insight-driven.

In the beginning stages of my project, I had low-fidelity wireframes that were full of unnecessary text and did not consider the most important question: “How does the future state differ from the current state/system”. Without considering the comparisons and how it applies to the user experience, I lacked the ability to explain my design decisions in a concise and purposeful manner